o - Bernheim Bros and Company purchase the "rights to the
use in the manufacture and sale of distilled spirits a
certain trademark for whiskey consisting of a double
quarter foil and arbitrary title I. W. Harper" from
Abraham Hoffheimer of Cincinnati. Ohio (U D Archive,
Uncataloged Manuscript).

1881 - Belmont Distillery is first listed in the Louisville
City Directory. The site of this distillery is the
present Bernheim distillery location (U of L Archives).

1882 - Bernheim is living in a house on the Corner of Second
Street and Ormsby. (UD Archives, 991.m.147)

o - I. W. Bernheim gives coal and bread to the poor people
of Paducah who were suffering during a winter flood
(Closing Chapters of a Busy Life, p.74).

o - Bernheim suscribe to the Illustrated Louisville of 1890
and have the discription of their business placed in
the book. It states that they are located at Nos. 135
& 137 Main Street in a 5 story brick building that is
30 feet front by 225 feet deep. Product is kept on all
floors which are conected by elevator.

o - The Pleasure Ridge Park Distillery erects 2 new
ironclad warehouses to replace one destroyed earlier in
the year (Wine and Spirits Bulletin, May 1891).

o - Bernheim Bros. and Uri announces that Nathen M Uri is
leaving the company as of June 1, 1891 (Wine and
Spirits Bulletin, June 1891).(N.M. Uri's photograph is
on page 52 of the July 18, 1892 Wine and Spirits
Bulletin.)

1895 - Bernheim Bros. have trade "from Maine to Texas and New
York to California" according to Bernheim in his family
history (I W Bernheim, The Bernheim Family, p.58).

1896 - A fire burns the warehouse in Pleasure Ridge with
Bernheim Bros. whiskey in it. The brothers face
financial disaster as the government wants $1,000,000
in taxes for the whiskey. Takes 18 months of litigation
to free the brothers from the debt. (UD Archives,
991.m.190 a+b).

o - The partner with Bernheim Bros in the P R P Warehouse
was Nathan Block of Block, Frank and Co. who made
Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks bourbons (I W
Bernheim, The Bernheim Family, p.58).

1899 - Bernheim Bros. buy a larger store and sell their store
on Main between 1rst and 2nd to W L Weller and Sons.
(Bernheim Family History, I W Bernheim, U Of L
Archives). The Louisville City Directory list the new
location as being at 626-628 West Main Street (U of L
Archives).

o - Bernheim Bros. have moved into their new building with
the back of the building being mostly made of glass and
iron to allow maximum lighting for office space (Wine
and Spirit Bulletin, Jan. 1, 1900, page 8).

o - Bernheim builds a new heated brick warehouse at the
distillery at a cost of $10,000. I W Bernheim is quoted
as saying that he will make 2,350 barrels of F F V Rye
this year, but will make 4,000 barrels the next.
"Mammaoth brick warehouse" that will be "modern and
complete in every detail" (Wine and Spirit Bulletin,
June 1, 1900, page 8).

o - Wine and Spirits Bulletin article states that Bernheim
Bros. "Stands to-day in the very front rank, not only
of the commercial institutions of Louisville but of the
whiskey houses of the World." The writer did not think
that "there is any doboubt that in a few years if
indeed not already, the brand `I.W. Harper'... will be
known in every part of the world." (August 1901, pp.
11-12.).

1901 - Bernheim donates a statue of Thomas Jefferson to the
city of Louisville. The statue was sculpted by Sir
Moses Ezekiel (Wine and Spirit Bulletin, Nov.1, 1901,
Page 18).

1918 - Bernhiem Bros. Distillery at Bernheim Lane and the RR
tracks is sold to A B Flarsheim for $39,000. United
American Company had owned it since 1911, (Courier
-Journal article Nov. 8, 1918, section 1, page 12,
column 1).

1920 - Bernheim moves its office to 105 West Main (Louisville
City Directory, U of L Archives).

o - Prohibition forces Max Selliger and his Belmont and
Astor distilleries to close (Louisville City Directory,
U of L Archives).

1929 - I. W. Bernheim donates statues of Henry Clay and Dr.
Ephraim McDowell to Kentucky to place in the Statuary
Hall of the Nation's Capital (Closing Chapters of a
Busy Life, pp.59-60).

o - I. W. Bernheim purchases 13,000 acres of "Kentucky
Knob" land for the creation of Bernheim Forest. The
land was to be funded by the Issac W. Bernheim
Foundation (Closing Chapters of a Busy Life, p. 78).

o - NOTE: Gerngross and Schwarzhaupt were part of founding
the American Medicinal Spirits Company (Fortune, Nov.,
33).

1934 - Bernheim moves its offices to 1701 West Breckinridge.
Also listed at this location are the Belmont and Astor
distilleries. Astor is a rye whiskey. (Louisville City
Directory, Uniiversity of Louisville).

o - Bernheim and Belmont Distilleries sold for $22 million
dollars and involved 142,650 barrels of whiskey (New
York Times, 2/19/37).

1938 - A new bottling house is built at the Bernheim
distillery. (991.m.142).

o - Belmont Bourbon is released on May 1, 1938. Since
Belmont was a bonded whiskey before prohibition, it was
not re-released until a four year bonding period had
passed (Remarks of Merit, April, 1938, p. 8).

o - An article in the Schenley magazine states that I W
Harper is the best selling bourbon on all ocean liners
(Schenley Magazine, Winter 1955, p.3).

1956 - Bernheim distillery wins first place in Louisville and
Jefferson County Beautification League contest. Brown
and Williamson Tobacco Corperation placed second and
Brown-Forman Distillery won third place. (UD Archives,
991.m.147).

1970 - Bernhard, The Prince of the Netherlands, sends a "Thank
You " note to Schenley because W.C. Beerman has been
sending him a bottle of bourbon (I.W. Harper) for his
birthday and Christmas for many years and he enjoys the
product (What's New at Schenley, Nov. 1970, p.5).

1972 - I W Harper 10-Year Old Bourbon is bottled to celebrate
the 100th birthday of the brand (What's New At
Schenley, March 1972).

1974 - I W Harper 101 is introduced. It is the first time
Schenley offered a bourbon with a proof over 100
(What's New At Schenley, Nov. 1974).

1992 - The new Bernheim Distillery is opened. This distillery
is making all of the whiskey produced by UDPI with
three seperate formulas. The Stitzel-Weller formula is
roughly 75% corn / 20% wheat / 5% barley malt and
barreled at 114 proof. The Bernheim formula is roughly
86% corn / 6% rye / 8% barley malt and barreled at 125
proof. The Glenmore formula is 80% corn / 20% rye and
barley malt and barreled at 125 proof. (C Morris,
28/1/93).

1994 - I W Harper Gold Medal 15 Year Old is introduced as part
of the Heritage Collection (M Veach, 3/25/96).

1996 - I W Harper 15 Year Old Gold Medal wins a gold Medal at
the International Wine and Spirits Competition in
London (M. Veach, July 15, 1996).

I thought someone might have said something about these mash bills at Bernheim. The thing left out and unsaid is the fact that these small amounts of malt mean that enzymes have to be added for conversion. I think that is one of the big differences in the taste of Van Winkle made Stitzel-Weller wheated, and later Stitzel-Weller wheated. The increased barrel proof at Bernheim along with the enzymes makes the Bernheim wheated even more different, and in my opinion, watery and weak on flavor.

Linn,
Ed was put into an unusaul situation. He was hired at Stitzel-Weller (actually Old Fitzgerald at the time, the name had not been changed back at the time) and his first project was to experiment with the enzymes. He was not particularly happy with that but he did what he was paid to do and it did save the company some big bucks since malt is the most expensive grain to purchase. He was constantly complaining and resisting the effort to raise the barrel proof. This made him unpopular with the brass at U.D. (notice they never put him in the spot light like the other companies did). He always argueed that it is true that you can hardly tell a difference between 110 and 112 barrel proof and you can not tell much difference between 112 and 114, but there is a noticable difference between 110 and 114!

Ed tried to do what was best and got pushed out of the way by the bean counters.

The previous distillery at Bernheim was used very little during the 80s because there was such a glut of whiskey. Schenley had sold Buffalo Trace earlier in the 80s. It was during this period that they may even have made some rye-recipe bourbon at Stitzel-Weller. They may also have been buying new make, like Diageo does now, from Heaven Hill, Brown-Forman and others.

Then there is the Glenmore story. Glenmore Distilleries in Louisville was the U.S. distributor for Amaretto DiSaronno for many years. In the early '80s, ADS decided to change U.S. distributors and paid Glenmore about $32 million to be let out of their contract a few years early. With that money, Glenmore bought some even smaller distillers, including Medley (which made Ezra Brooks) and Fleischmanns (no bourbons, but a successful blended whiskey and gin sold under the Fleischmanns brand name).

In 1991, Guinness bought Glenmore, merged it with Schenely, and named the new entity United Distillers. This left United with literally hundreds of brands and several distilleries, though only Medley was operating. Most of the brands were small and regional. In the spring of 1993, United sold 70 brands to Heaven Hill, including J.W. Dant, Cabin Still, Ezra Brooks and Yellowstone bourbons. Heaven Hill then turned around and resold several brands to David Sherman Company in St. Louis (now Luxco), including Ezra Brooks and Yellowstone.

When the new Bernheim plant went on line, they closed Medley and Stitzel-Weller, selling Medley to Charles Medley, who had been master distiller there for Glenmore. They retained Stitzel-Weller but moved the bottling line there to Owensboro, where Glenmore had a large and modern bottling plant at the site of the old Glenmore distillery. That's the bottling plant and warehouse complex now owned by Sazerac. Angostura now owns Medley. Yellowstone in Shively was sold to Florida Distillers, which made blending spirit there. Florida Distillers is also now owned by Angostura but I'm not sure who owns Yellowstone now or if anything is being done there.

Diageo was formed in 1997 and in 1999 did another big sell-off, which is when Heaven Hill bought Bernheim along with Old Fitzgerald and some other brands, and Sazerac bought Weller. The warehouses at Stitzel-Weller were nearly empty at one point, then Maker's Mark rented some space in them, and Diageo started to use them again when its deal with Four Roses started to wind down.